POLL: Who Wins UFC 173 Title Fight, Lyoto Machida Or Chris Weidman

With the recent media storm surrounding the controversial topic of TRT, and it’s banishment from MMA, it seems that Lyoto Machida and Chris Weidman’s newly scheduled title fight has been a little overlooked. The pairing is a direct result of the UFC/NSAC ruling on testosterone replacement therapy, but a very exciting one nonetheless.

Vitor Belfort was originally scheduled to face Weidman at 173, but a 90-day TRT purge period would make it impossible for ‘The Phenom’ to make that bout in fighting shape. In stepped ‘The Dragon’, who faces the champion of the division in only his third fight there.

After knocking out Mark Munoz, Machida went on to decision the crap out of ‘Dreamcatcher’ Gegard Mousasi. His impressive form and high ranking has meant that ‘The Dragon’ was a no-brainer for Belfort’s replacement against Weidman.

Although not a heavy-handed, Machida poses a whole new kind of threat; counter striking. I am of the firm opinion that Machida will not only be harder to hit, but a lot harder to take down than Belfort. ‘The All-American’ will have his hands full, but who do you think will take the win at UFC 173?

I think Machida is a bad match stylistically for Chris. But Chris seems like a game planner more than an outright natural talent and game planners can often get the upset with brains. I still pick Machida and his gifts.

I think it all depends on Weidman's takedown. If he can establish his ground game he will win, likely by decision against Machida' s underrated ground game. However with Lyoto's elusiveness(cliche I know) being more patient than Silva, some of the best takedown defense in the game, I think if he gets the opening he puts Weidman away. Love the match up, either can win.

Machida wins by TKO round 3/4. I think Weidman will be patient to a point but will be down on points and have to commit more by 3rd and 4th and that's where he will lose. Machida ERA! 2 time champ in 2 different weight classes. I also think he cleans out division. Calling it now. He will go on a more impressive run than Silva over next 3 years and people will be throwing his name in for goat. He has 2-3 years left.

So in 2-3 years he's going to go on a run like Silva of 7 years? Silva finished every opponent except for 1's he literally gave a pass by clowning the whole fight and never attempting to finish. Machida even if he went on a 10 year run I'd say it wasn't better than Silva's because he'll be 60% decisions

I think Weidman is a bad match up for Machida, Weidman won't get impatient and make mistakes. I expect Weidman to knock him out, every Machida fight I see he moves his head back straight with his hands out, not up. That's how Shogun got him and I got a feeling Weidman will get him in the same way.

A lot of people have Machida defending Weidman's takedowns, and eventually catching him on the feet and putting him away. I could definitely see it going that way, but I think it's more likely that the fight goes to a decision.

When Machida fights goes to the decision, he wins the standup exchanges, but does not truly dominate the fight because he spends the majority of the time moving away from his opponent, and he simply does not throw a high enough volume of strikes to really dominate.

With that being said, it's pretty important for Machida to stay off his back if he's going to win a decision. He clearly won the stand up aspect of every round against Phil Davis…but he got taken down in two of the three rounds, which like it or not, was enough for two of the judges to hand Davis those two rounds and the split decision. If Weidman can get 3 or 4 takedowns over a 5 round fight, he more than likely will pull off a decision win, especially if he gets them earlier in the round than Davis did and can actually do something with them.